The present application in general relates to fishing equipment, and, in particular, relates to fishing rods with strike signalling apparatus.
As every fisherman known, there is only one proper, or "ideal" time to set the hook after a fish has struck the bait. This "ideal" time varies with each individual fisherman, and further varies according to the conditions, type of fish and numerous other factors. It is often the case, especially with novice fishermen, that such "ideal" time is often missed, and the fish is able to escape. It goes without saying that such situations are disappointing and frustrating. Such situations may even occur with expert fishermen who may have temporarily released the fishing rod, or whose attention is otherwise temporarily diverted. For example, in trolling, the fishing rods are mounted on a boat, and the attention of the fisherman must be divided between steering the boat and the fishing rod. This is often quite difficult, and strikes can often be missed, even by an expert fisherman.
Heretofore, the "ideal" time to set the hook has been "sensed" by the fisherman. Of course, an expert fisherman has a developed sense of feel which is very sensitive as compared to a novice fisherman. However, even such expert fisherman may miss the ideal time if his attention is diverted. Hence, to overcome this problem, there are several types of strike signalling systems presently available. However, as will be discussed below, all of the systems suffer from similar disadvantages of inconsistent signalling, inaccurate signalling, and unreliable operation. Furthermore, these systems are almost impossible to alter so that they can be adapted to different situations, and often interfere with the balance and control of the rod.
An example of such systems are those devices which employ a bell on the rod that rings when a fish strikes. However, in addition to the other drawbacks, such devices suffer from the disadvantage that, as the prey is reeled in, the bell is constantly ringing, and the fisherman is subjected to the cacophony of the bell while he is reeling in the fish. Furthermore, such devices, in addition to being inaccurate, often completely fail to signal a strike at all.
Still other devices utilize electronic circuitry to monitor a fishing rod. Such devices generally have normally open switches mounted on the outside of the rod, which switches are closed when the rod flexes. Such exteriorly mounted switches are exposed to the environment and thus dirt, salt, moisture, or the like may cause malfunctioning or jamming of the switches. The jamming can be caused by dirt entering the switch, or by the rusting of some of the parts of the switch, or the like. In any event, such switches generally become unreliable and inaccurate after some period of use.
If the switches do not completely jam, they often become inaccurate. But worse than this, the switches tend to provide inconsistent operation, as the flexing which closes the switch when the switch is clean may not close it when the switch is dirty. Thus, a fisherman has no reliable way of setting the switch so that he will be assured of being notified when it has proven most useful to him after a fish has taken the hook in the manner which the fisherman deems to be a strike, i.e., the "ideal" time to set the hook. Thus, a previous setting may not be reliably used to set the alarm system for larger or smaller fish, or even held constant for the same size fish, due to the inconsistent switch closing characteristics.
Often, the sensitivity of the known switches cannot be varied. Thus, once set, the devices may prove to be useless for fish smaller, or larger, than the setting reference. To change the settings of known systems, elements of the system often must be replaced, a difficult and often expensive procedure.
The present inventor has disclosed, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,051,616, a signalling device which is mounted in a rod, and a device which includes a strain gauge mounted on the rod. The disclosure of this prior patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,051,616, is incorporated into the present disclosure by reference thereto.
The prior device is very effective, but is permanently mounted on the fishing rod. In other words, this prior device is not as versatile as it could be because, once applied to a rod, it cannot be easily removed and applied to another rod. If a fisherman desires to fish under several conditions, i.e., trolling, spin, surface, or the like, he must purchase a rod equipped with the signalling device for each type of fishing. In effect, that fisherman is purchasing a separate signalling device for each type of fishing. As the signalling device performs the same function and operation in all instances, such multiple purchases are redundant.
Accordingly, there is need for a versatile signalling device which has the advantages of the device disclosed in the referenced patent, without the drawbacks of that device.